Granberg, Åke

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology.

Armelius, Kerstin

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology.

Armelius, Bengt-Åke

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology.

2001 (English)Report (Other academic)

Abstract [en]

The relationship between patients’ initial ratings of their self-image and theoutcome of long-term psychiatric treatment was studied in a five -year followupstudy. The subjects were severely disturbed psychiatric patients, mainlyschizophrenics, treated in small treatment homes. A comparison was madebetween patients with a psychotic personality organization (PPO patients) anda non-psychotic personality organization (non-PPO patients), classifiedaccording to Kernberg’s (1981) criteria. Self-image was assessed with theintroject surface of Benjamin’s SASB (Structural Analysis of Social Behavior)model and two self-image patterns were computed: a positive-negative patternand a control-autonomy pattern. Two outcome measures (expressed as EffectSize) were used: subjective outcome was a combination of self-rated methods andjudged outcome was a combination of observer ratings. The relationshipbetween the two self-image patterns and outcome depended both on thepatients’ diagnosis and type of outcome. Judged outcome could not bepredicted from the self-image for the PPO patients; for the non-PPO patientsmore improvement was related to more self-control. For both patient groupssubjective outcome was related to a more negative self-image; however, thisrelationship was much stronger in the non-PPO group.